Biltmore Gardens

The garden was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. He worked with an architect, Hunt, who had studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts and worked in a French idiom. Their client was George Washington Vanderbilt. The Esplanade in front of the house is a rectangular court with double rows of trees. North of the Esplanade is a rectangular Italian garden and further to the north is a Walled Garden, a Rose Garden and a 200 acre Azalea Garden. The formal elements are set in a picturesque park, making Biltmore a classic example of the Repton-influenced Mixed Style. Olmsted was also interested in the layout of the vast wooded estate (125,000 acres) in which the garden is set. Biltmore is the grandest estate ever built in America. You can see much of the layout of the garden if you zoom in on the map below (the marker is positioned in the Italian Garden).